Last chance, this year, to see a pure stock muscle car drag race in the midwest will happen Fri Sept 15th. Eliminations, best two out of three races, will happen tomorrow, Sept 16th. The track is the Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton Michigan. This is located just to the northeast of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They have a web site at either PSMCDR or Mid Michigan, with maps and times. John Feistritzer (57 T'Bird F code) and Frank Rice (57 Custom 300, F code) along with a ton of Cobra Jets, 427 Marauders, Blower Studebakers and more will be there.

  Be nice to have some moral support from anybody NOT wearing a Bowtie shirt!

http://www.geocities.com/psmcdr

                                               Frank/Rebop

We both won our matches, John raced a '69 Shelby Cobra Jet, I ran a '69 390 AMX.  

John ran a best of 14.90 @ 95, the red car ran a 14.030 @ 102.55. Almost a 13 second ride!

                                                          Frank/Rebop

Pretty impressive times for a "three on the tree" shifting ride.  Even today, that kind of performance will outrun most of the faster rides but in its day and well into the Sixties, it would have simply just flown by most of the performance muscle that was available and had people just shaking their heads.  It's almost scary to think what a four speed with a hard launch and some power shifting would do for your car.  But being column shifted has to make the present performance level a head turner no doubt.

Not only is Frank's car a 3 on the tree, there was another one there.  A guy by the name of Brian Stefina brought a '58 Merc 430, 400 horse tri power three on the tree car, similar to Royce's except it is two tone green.  Beautiful isn't enough of an adjective to describe the car.  He coaxed a 14.07 out of it on his final pass, this was the first time out for the car.  Brian has been racing a '64 Merc Maurader 427/425, it goes 13.0s.  Wonder if we can get him to bring the '58 to our next shootout.  If we let Royce run his, we have to let Brian run.

John

Sounds like a new trend in high perfomance column shifted cars.  I'm definitely game for having the orphan Lincoln engines running alongside the Y's as it would definitely add to the car count while adding some diversity to a field of cars that's already quite diversified.  Like you said, Royce has already broken the ground in that regard.

The merc was absolutely beautiful, made my F car look sad. AND, if john ever got serious about the 'Bird, the 14's would become 13's in a heartbeat. Er......second.

                                           Frank/Rebop

Did you get Brian's contact info? It would be great to set up a match race between him and Royce next year! I would love to see those two Mercs going head to head.

Rob

Congrats on the great ET and speed.  Back in the early 60's Hayden Proffit used to run a three speed trans in his Pontiac, even though a 4 speed was a viable stock option.  He thought that he was faster with one less shift.  What did you do at the Y Block Nationals?  Did I send you a copy of the  1993 Cars & Parts article on George Chaltins 57 F Skyliner?  He turned 15.10 when he won his class at the NHRA Nationals, in 61 I think.  I can't put my hands on the old Hot Rod magazine that had that listed.  He used to be in the 14's a lot too at the local tracks around the Chicago area.

Back when Hayden was running his 3 speed, didn't Pontiacs with 3 speeds come equipped with a Hurst floor shifter from the factory?  If not, I think the rules allowed the upgrade.  Now if we can adapt a Hurst shifter to Frank's steering column, he'll be in business.

I remember George's retractable, but didn't remember his times.  14s in a heavy car like that in those days is remarkable.  I had a friend running a B/S '59 chevy at the US Nationals one year and George was there running D/SA.  In stock eliminator they had Top, Middle, and Little Eliminators and they all ran heads up.  Dick was lined up with George, and said he took off and left the Ford easily.  He banged his 4 speed through the gears, and after he got in 4th, Whoooosh, the Ford BLEW by him for the win that round.

Jon

I'm sure he had a Hurst Floor shifter.  I located some more information.  George won D/S at the 61 NHRA Nationals and turned 14.54 @ 97.29 MPH.  He raced mostly Pontiacs.  If you would like a copy of the article on his car, I would be glad to mail it to you and to anyone else interested.  I saw George at the Indy. Nats. in 63, or 64? He was running a yellow and white F Fairlane 2 door.  The article says he hooked up better with the Skyliner, it had better weight transfer, aft weight I guess.

   I'd love a copy of that article to add to my collection. And, a good three speed floor shift that allowed me to speed shift, would pick up a couple tenths easy.

                                                               Frank

Send me your mailing address and I will mail the article to you.  You can send it to me at radio@inwave1.com or via a PM.  I tried sending you an e-mail and a PM.

couple of pictures from Stanton

Courtesy of Bob Palma, Frank/Rebop

Pictures of the Stefina '58

Merc at Stanton

What I have done is take the overdrive off a 3speed T85, made a front end for it from flat plate and a piece of tubing, machined it for the front of the OD and also for a ball bearing and a seal at the front.  I had a U-joint square flange resplined to fit the OD shaft, drilled and tapped the shaft and bolted the flange on.  Made front and rear driveshafts to fit.  Put a lockout cable on it, and wired a toggle switch to operate the solenoid.

John

The nose of what is normally the input shaft to the transmission has to be supported in some way.  The front bearing of the transmission cannot do this, and the result will be wobbling of the shaft and serious driveshaft vibration, not to mention iminent failure of the transmission.  Weren't two speed rear ends available by '57?  That would be the easiest solution to your problem.

John

   sure glad I read this post on the 57 F350. Dan I'm having the same problem with the one I inherited,( 57 F350) it has 5:13's. I thought when John said he put a T85 in it, I didn't realize it was put between the 4 sd. and the rear itself. I was under the impression that the 4 sd. was taken out all together, and replaced with the T-85.  Also I'd Love to see Brian and Royce both at this years Nationals, that would be something.

                                                  Michael